Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | Soulveda | May 05, 2017
When India and Pakistan went to war in 1965, it was Pakistan that enjoyed a superior position in armaments. The British-made Patton tanks owned by Pakistan were far more sophisticated than the Indian-made Vijayant tanks. Likewise the French-made Sabre jets were capable of striking with greater force than India’s home-made gnat planes.
Yet it was India that emerged victorious in this war and Pakistan that was defeated. One of the main reasons for India’s victory, according to war analysts, was that the arms used by India were manufactured in their own country, so they knew exactly how to operate them. Whereas Pakistani arms were acquired from other countries; their soldiers were not able to handle these weapons with great expertise.
What is true of military machines applies equally to all machines. Their efficiency depends on the efficiency of those who handle them: Even the most sophisticated technology of warfare is handled ultimately by men engaged in the profession of soldiering. Its use in combat depends, therefore, greatly on their skill, training, morale and ingenuity.
The doctrine of the supremacy of the man behind the gun thus remains valid even in this age of push-button wars, though it will surely become inoperative if the unthinkable turns into a reality and a nuclear conflict is unleashed through madness or miscalculation. (The Times of India, February 2, 1984)
In modern times, many are of the view that the universe is simply a soul-less, self-automated machine. But the hard facts of modern warfare mentioned above totally contradict such mechanical interpretation. All the machines, which man has known, have always been in need of an operator. On what grounds, then, can the argument that the universe is on the move without an operator be valid? This argument must be dismissed as conjecture, for it has no practical or theoretical argument to support it.
Let us suppose that the universe is a great machine: even then it needs a great mind to operate it. Man has no alternative but to accept God, whether in religious terms as a Creator and Sustainer, or in scientific terms as the operator of the machine.